Before The End
by katibee234
Summary: Albus Dumbledore goes to say goodbye to his oldest friend before he leaves the earth for good. Round 1 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition.


This is for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. My prompts were the word _memory _and the dialogue of "People have an annoying habit of remembering things they shouldn't." So, here goes nothing.

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize, that all belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling.

Dumbledore knew his life was coming to an end. The Dark Lord and his Death Eater followers were looming in the shadows waiting for the perfect time to strike. He already knew he was going to die and had made Snape promise to do the deed for him. There was just one thing he wanted to take care of before he left the earth for good. He wanted to say goodbye to his oldest friend, Gellert Grindelwald. Yes, they had a falling out but in his mind Grindelwald was still his oldest friend. He wanted to put everything behind him and say goodbye before it was too late.

As he walked up toward Grindelwald's cell a memory of their young adult lives together hit him. He remembered the famous three-way duel between himself, Grindelwald, and his brother Aberforth. The duel that got his dear sister killed. He had been devastated, but he had known it was an accident and just wanted to talk to his friend and tell him that he was forgiven. But Grindelwald had left before he could say anything to him.

Now, this was his last chance to say something to his oldest friend before he died. He approached the cell that held his old friend. Albus looked through the bars and saw Grindelwald sitting in the corner on the dusty old floor.

"I knew you would come some day. Just didn't know when that day would be." Grindelwald said not even looking up.

"Well with the war looming over our heads I thought I would come and say goodbye." Albus said.

"Ha," Grindelwald laughed, "say goodbye? Why would you want to say goodbye to me?"

"We were the best of friends at one point Gellert. Don't you remember?"

"People have an annoying habit of remembering things they shouldn't, Albus."

"What to you mean?"

"I killed your sister Albus! How you could forget that and feel the need to come and say goodbye to me? I killed Ariana because of a crazy need for power. Even after that I stole the Elder Wand and reigned the world as the Darkest Wizard of the time, before You Know Who came along. You are the one who ultimately sent me here Albus! Why would you even think of coming by and telling me goodbye?"

"I didn't forget Gellert. I didn't forget any of that. But I am reasonable man, and I thought since I did not have much time left, I would put that all behind me and forget all the bad and come say goodbye to one of my oldest friends."

Grindelwald contemplated what Albus had just said, "What do you mean you don't have much time left?"

Albus took his hand out of his pocket and showed Gellert, "I was poisoned thanks to You Know Who himself. The Potion's professor has stopped it as best as he can, but it is spreading faster and faster everyday. It is going to reach my heart very soon and my end is very near."

"Oh. Well we are all meant to die at some point Albus."

"Yes. Yes we are Gellert. I just thought since I knew my end was near and you were once, my greatest friend, I thought I should honor you with a goodbye."

"I am still confused as why you would. I caused you so much pain. Why would you want to say goodbye to someone who did all those things to you, no matter what the past between them was?"

Albus sighed and looked at Gellert, "After Ariana's death I was a mess. I had just lost my sister. When things started to get better I thought back to what happened. I realized the situation and what had happened was an accident. Yes, I mourned the loss of my dear sister, but I wanted to let you know that I knew it was an accident and that I had forgiven you. I went searching for you and found that you were gone, that you had fled. The next time I saw you was when I had won the Elder wand from you and sent you here. It has been a long time since then Gellert. A very long time, and I have regretted not coming to see you till now. I am terribly sorry my friend."

"You know Albus. Being in here for all these years makes you sit and think about a lot of things. I catch myself more times than not thinking of what we could have been. We could have been so powerful together. We could have taken on the Dark Lord by ourselves. We could have been the most powerful wizards of all time. But I guess that is all a far off dream now."

"It is Gellert. But we all do what we do for reasons only we can understand. A person does things because that is what they think is the right thing to do at that time. It is all in the past now. For now, let me just say goodbye to you my friend."

"Before you go Albus, let me tell you one thing. Protect the Elder Wand with your life. He wants it, the Dark Lord I mean. He wants the Elder Wand and he will do whatever he can to get it."

"I will Gellert. Goodbye my friend."

"Goodbye Albus. See you again someday."


End file.
